Here, the speakers reflect on their time at WashU, their hopes for the future, and their wishes for the graduating class.

Doctoral Student Speaker: Merve Ileri Tayar

When graduate student Merve Ileri Tayar began exploring PhD programs, she already had a clear sense of the work she wanted to do, and the person she hoped to learn from. 

“I came here specifically for my mentor,” she said of Julie Bugg, a professor of psychological and brain sciences. “I would read her papers and think about her projects, try to develop my projects like hers. She was my dream mentor.”

As an undergraduate, Ileri Tayar followed Bugg’s research in cognitive control, studying her papers and imagining what it might be like to contribute to that work. At WashU, that early interest turned into close collaboration, hands-on research, and years of mentorship.

Along the way, some moments made that journey feel real. One stands out in particular: After being named a finalist for the 2025 Dean’s Award for Graduate Research Excellence, Ileri Tayar presented her work on attention and cognitive control to faculty and university leaders, including members of the Arts & Sciences National Council, an advisory committee to the dean of Arts & Sciences. She was ultimately selected as the winner.

“When I heard my name announced, it felt like recognition of everything — five years of work, not just the outcome. It was a very happy moment,” she said. 

But the experience extended far beyond research. Moving to the United States from Turkey, Ileri Tayar arrived without an established community. Over time, she built one, an accomplishment she considers just as meaningful as any academic milestone. “I learned how to live my life from scratch,” she said. “Success doesn’t just happen on its own. It happens with people.”

That perspective now shapes the message Ileri Tayar hopes to share with her classmates: There is no single path to success. “You don’t have to look like what came before you to shape what’s coming. There’s no single form of success,” she said. “Build your own version.”

She also emphasizes the importance of showing up for others along the way: “If you want to have a village, you have to be a villager. Ask for help and be willing to help people when they need it.”

After graduation, Ileri Tayar will continue her research as a postdoctoral associate at Duke University. She will leave WashU with not only a strong foundation as a scientist, but also a broader understanding of how to build community and navigate new challenges. 

“I want to carry on what people taught me here," she said. “Not just academically, but for life.”

Master’s Student Speaker: Chinonso Anyanwu

Chinonso Anyanwu, a graduate student in Theater and Performance Studies, chose WashU for its academic rigor and the strength of its programs. 

“Throughout my time here, I just had confidence in the quality, and I was very happy with what I had hoped to achieve,” she said.

Over time, Anyanwu found that her experience extended beyond the classroom into leadership, collaboration, and community across graduate programs. “I was able to use my interests across my discipline and beyond it,” she said, reflecting on how her time at WashU allowed her to connect academic work with broader institutional engagement.

One of her favorite memories came through her work in graduate student leadership. “I’ve had a lot of favorites, but one of them would be across a lot of events that I organized and helped facilitate in my role as president of the Graduate and Professional Students’ Council,” she said. “Meeting graduate students across WashU and realizing we actually share a lot in common — similar goals, passions, and issues we wanted to push advocacy for — those moments really stand out.” 

Among her proudest accomplishments is the growth she has seen in her academic work, shaped by her research interests and lived experience. “I pride myself on creating work around social consciousness,” she said. “All of the lived experiences I had coming from Nigeria proved to be very useful in an academic context in an entirely different country.” She added that academic mentorship helped her translate those experiences into scholarship with impact. 

In her speech, Anyanwu hopes to emphasize the power of cross-cultural connection in academic and creative spaces. 

“I hope the audience takes away a strong message in the potential of scholarship to travel,” she said. “One of the biggest anxieties I had when I moved to the United States was wondering if what I was saying would translate, or if we would even understand each other. But those concerns gradually disappeared through conversation and academic co-creation.” 

She described WashU as a place where those connections became both real and transformative. 

Looking back, she would encourage her younger self to take more time to engage with life outside of academic work. “I would take more time to enjoy the city of St. Louis,” she said. “Explore those connections WashU is making with the city, try more local food, talk to more local people, and take care of myself socially as well as academically.”

After graduation, Anyanwu will continue her academic journey in Northwestern University’s Interdisciplinary PhD in Theatre and Drama, where she will focus on the intersection of law and performance studies within the legal humanities. She credits WashU with preparing her both intellectually and personally for this next step.

“I cannot quantify how much preparation WashU has given me to have the confidence to pursue more graduate studies,” she said. “The academic support system and the experience of engaging with people from different cultures are skills I will carry forward into whatever comes next.”

Alumni Speaker: Thomas Gilligan

Equipped with a deep curiosity about economics and an eagerness to shape policy, Thomas Gilligan, PhD ’84, built a career marked by mentorship and service.

Gilligan grew up on naval bases and spent four years as a Russian linguist in the Air Force. After graduating in three years from the University of Oklahoma, he received a full-ride fellowship to pursue a PhD in economics at WashU. Before finishing that degree, he served as a staff economist on the Council of Economic Advisors in the White House. “I developed an itch for public policy,” he said. 

His WashU training prepared him for a wide-ranging career in economics and higher education. He held professorships at the California Institute of Technology and the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California. He also held visiting appointments at Stanford University and Northwestern University.

He went on to become dean of the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin and director of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, a public policy center where he is now an emeritus senior fellow.

Gilligan and his wife, Christie Skinner, are longtime supporters of Arts & Sciences. In 2013, the couple created the Eden S.H. Yu Graduate Fellowship in Economics at WashU. The fellowship is named for Eden Yu, MA ’74, PhD ’76, an influential mentor to Gilligan during his time at the University of Oklahoma. The couple has since established a second graduate fellowship in economics. Gilligan received an Arts & Sciences Distinguished Alumni Award in 2023 and joined the Arts & Sciences National Council that same year.

Gilligan said he wanted to give back to WashU, the institution that set him on his path through education, government, and policymaking. He recalled the many professors, mentors, and fellow students who challenged and inspired him. 

“WashU allowed me to mingle with many people I would run into later,” Gilligan said. “Hardly anything in life happens without some sort of connection.”

Meet the 2026 undergraduate ceremony speakers and student marshals.